#yes i do think its bad to share nazi memes. what

[toytulini]

what is going On this week

[duesternis]

@elyksina asked me to answer all the questions in the “hi, I’m not from the US” ask game, and who am I to deny them that pleasure?

find the original post here

1. favourite place in your country? → the north sea coast

2. do you prefer spending your holidays in your country or travel abroad? → sadly I haven’t travelled much so far, but there are many places I want to see, both abroad and in my country.

3. does your country have access to sea? → YES, god bless. one and a half seas even (the baltic bathtub is barely a sea, fellas, I’m sorry to say)

4. favourite dish specific for your country? → öhmmmmmm.... Mettbrötchen? strikes me as very german (tm)

5. favourite song in your native language? → Ich will brennen - ASP [listen here]

6. most hated song in your native language? → too many to list, but i really don’t like anything by adel tawil and zweiraumwohnung. also like schlager... pls miss me with that. xavier naidoo get wrekt

7. three words from your native language that you like the most? → Sehnsucht, Vorfreude, Traum (these were chosen very randomly off the top of my head, but they are all gorgeous)

8. do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom? → people at work often believe I have a eastern european heritage, and funnily its most often people from eastern europe themselves who believe that. But I’m as kartoffelig as they come.

9. which of your neighbouring countries would you like to visit most/know best? → France, I think.

10. most enjoyable swear word in your native language? → Wixer is one i use very often. Hurensohn also.

11. favourite native writer/poet? → my favourite writers are Juli Zeh and Wolfgang Herrndorf. i can’t say that i have a favourite poet.

12. what do you think about English translations of your favourite native prose/poem? → I actually don’t partake in stuff like that, cause I’m afraid of it being bad lol. But when I see sth on my dash by chance (most often rilke, somehow, the americans seem to like him a lot) i’m like :/, cause it doesn’t seem as ~profound~ in english as it does in german. I’m a bit pretentious like that and enjoy things in their original language where i can.

13. does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders? → probably? but nothing specific comes to mind? fellow kartoffelpeople help me out here lol

14. do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV? → No ♥

15. a saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get? → Jetzt mal Butter bei die Fische? also like MAHLZEIT!!

16. which stereotype about your country you hate the most and which one you somewhat agree with? → hate it when people say german is an ugly language. it’s a gorgeous piece of work. Have to say I kind of agree with the stereotype that  germans are standoffish. We take some time to warm up to people.

17. are you interested in your country’s history?→ a decent amount i’d say, but I’m no historybuff

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language? → thanks to moving around a lot as a kid, not really? bits and pieces of flavour in my manner of speaking, but all of it is kind of affected.

19. do you like your country’s flag and/or emblem? what about the national anthem? → they are okay? Bundesgeier my beloved.

20. which sport is The Sport in your country? → fußball

21. if you could send two things from your country into space, what would they be? → Nazis? Weizenbier.

22. what makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed? → I’m german, I’m not proud about my country. I’m german, I’m ashamed about all the shit the people have pulled and still pull.

23. which alcoholic beverage is the favoured one in your country?→ BIER ♥ (although wiezenbier can go die in a ditch)

24. what other nation is joked about most often in your country? → Poland, I think? But france gets it’s fair share too

25. would you like to come from another place, be born in another country? → Not really? there are many upsides to being born and raised in germany. (healthcare ftw)

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal? → yes, and I’m not too happy about it mostly. not everyone needs to be an evil scientist (often shown loaded with antisemitic propaganda) or a nazi. Or a Bavarian for that matter. It’s very old stereotypes that Hollywood operates with and there are very seldom portrayals that seem untouched by them. I have my hopes on the future though. Younger and more liberal filmmakers shall do better by all nations, I hope.

27. favourite national celebrity? → I don’t know that many national celebrities, actually? I’m not hip with the kids and all that goes on lol

28. does your country have a lot of lakes, mountains, rivers? do you have favourites? → all of the above, yup. And I don’t have a favourite, not really. I’m an ocean person through and through.

29. does your region/city have a beef with another place in your country? → I live in a city that’s divided by a river, you can imagine the rest. But since I wasn’t born here I don’t give a shit.

30. do you have people of different nationalities in your family? → Not that I know off

[lesdoublesll]

Hello!! Just wanted to ask, what do you think about Finkeldorf?? Danke ✌️❤️

Such a small question, but such a complicated one ! I have so much things to say about them I love them so much ♥️

First of all, they are much more than a ship, they are their own persons and boi, I love both. So I think I'll answer what I think of the characters, and of the pairing.

The pairing is AMAZING. They've known each other for so long, they trust each other so much : you can just feel Finkel would do anything to please K, but in an absolutely non toxic way despite K being his superior. He is just super supportive and admirative all the time ! K on the other hand looks very protective with his Finkie ahah which is understandable. He is so adorable, just imagining someone like Freddy being hurt must be unbearable (for me it is 😭). And let's be real : having such a supportive, cute, young boyfriend, I wouldn't want to share him and I would protect him at all costs too ! And I think Taika Waititi did a great job convey all of it in the film, without making it too obvious (because at the time you had to hide it) but on the contrary: making it subtle but beautiful. It's the only long term relationship exposed in it, and it's not even pointed out. Its just there because that is how it is. And that's great lgbt representation : that's just life : they aren't treated any different from hetero characters. Being gay isn't their main trait, it's not only there to serve comic purposes, but it is also there for the plot (for captain K's character and for his relationship with Jojo; I will talk about it later ;) )

So yeah I love them, and the film just reminded me of how it was, being bullied for years for being "a lesbian" (which I am not but you know for some ppl bisexuality is hard to understand) "the bisexual slut who wants to have sex with everyone" and all the slut shaming that came with it. It reminded me of how unfair the whole situation was, of how vulnerable I was, it reminded me of why I've been an active lgbt suppoter for years. And you know, I tend to actually forget how cruel can ppl be sometimes, because it's been two years since I am in humanities in prepschool, half of my friends are bi, the other half are gay and lesbian, I am accepted by my family and my friends, and I have a gf. It's almost like everything is perfect and nothing bad happens to us. But it's not true, and as much as it is crucial we enjoy all the good things that happen to us in life, we must remember some lgbt ppl didn't have that chance and some still don't have it. Some lgbt ppl are still harrassed/arrested/killed everywhere in the world in every country. And Finkeldorf just reminded me that I needed not to forget about it. That I should still fight for my rights, for the rights of every single lgbt person.

Oh and a ww2 gay pairing: my historian brain just loved it xD

Ok. Wow that escalated I am sorry x)

As for the characters.

Freddy Finkel. I absolutely love him with all my heart and that's not even because he is portrayed by the best actor alive. (And the most handsome by the way. ) He is so precious. Maybe he is a little dumb (mostly for comic effects x) ) but he wants to do thing good so bad, almost like he is searching for approval. And surely K gives him all the approval he needs and that's awesome (cause K makes him feel like he isn't that stupid). You can also tell how he is always so enthusiastic and cheerful all the time : he is young and he wants to enjoy life ! And that makes perfect sense that he ends up with someone as desillusioned and sarcastic as K. I think K needs that a lot actually x). Must be refreshing and comforting. Finkel is adorable. Just as Alfie said : he ends up in this situation because of wrong circumstances. He surely does not want to be a soldier, and obviously does not want to be any part of the nazi system: he surely is in the army because it was mandatory, or even before it was mandatory because he wanted to be with K. Just as Alfie said : he is just in love. That's all. Just like a lot of regular soldiers, he must go on and do as he is told, so he can survive with the love of his life. Great life eh ?... :( I don't know if he is part of any group of resistance and I would say no for two reasons. 1) Finkel is loud, dumb and awkward. Not a great idea. 2) I am sure K would not want him to be. He would like to handle things on his own and be sure Finkel is safe. And I am sure Finkel would feel bad for it but would agree with him.

I would never call him a bad person.

Ok Klenzendorf now. There are so many things to say. Sam Rockwell first shall we ? Sam Rockwell is amazing in this role. He just fits perfectly. I have watched a lot of movies with him before and I always loved his part the best in those movies. But in Jojo Rabbit. Omg I was like Pikachu on that meme : :O !! I was gagging !!! (Just ask my gf). He was awesome and the character is PERFECT. Far more complex than Finkel of course, because he is a crucial character of the film. (And a fan favorite of course). He isn't black or white. He isn't a nazi, in the sense that he doesn't believe in this ideology at ALL. That's why he doesn't take his job seriously : that's a fucking rebel and you can't tell me I am wrong. He surely is in the army since WW1. So again : it wasn't his direct choice to be in the german army. But we can tell he likes his job : he likes being a soldier, that was a choice he made before Hitler. But he was let down by this system : all the clubs he used to go to were destroyed, he suddenly could go to KZ because he was gay, his boyfriend could go to KZ because of something he would say or do, his eye lost he couldn't even be seen as valuable by this same system...just imagine seeing the Germany you fought for crumble and fall around you. Being someone and then BOOM being nothing to your country. worst : being someone your country doesn't want at all! Yes that's fucking horrible. And in the film there are evidences that he fights against this system that let him down: the fact that he knows Rosie (who is in a group of resistants) and she HITS him and he says nothing ! That's just like the biggest clue : they are in the same group. X) Rosie's bikes and the gestapo scene when he helps Elsa and Jojo and how he saves Jojo at the end. So yeah surely a resistant. And... he can't to anything else. He can't refuse a mission as a soldier : it would make him in danger, and what he does could make FINKEL in danger too. And if you had to obey to save yourself and your lover I know a lot of ppl out there would do the same. He even tries to convince Jojo to stop thinking about jews, he tries to change his mind ! So he is a complex character and he shouldn't even be a controversial character in the first place. Any sane ppl who watch the film and knows its history should think that way. He isn't the best person, but he is a good person, even if he surely loathes himself for the things he has done. I love him so much!!

There :D thx for the ask.

[kuiperblog]

Awards that the Academy missed

Now that the Oscars are over, I thought I’d put out my own picks for several categories that didn’t receive proper recognition from the academy:

Best emotional scene where Scarlett Johansson ties someone’s shoes

Jojo Rabbit is an incredibly kind, sincere, and deeply funny movie. It’s hard to be a single mother. It’s even harder to be a single mother in Nazi Germany, especially when your son is enthusiastically pledging loyalty to the Party. Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) hates the Nazi Party, but she loves her son, and we see that no more clearly than in the scene where she squats down to tie Jojo’s shoes and explains the meaning of love. “You’ll know it when it happens. You’ll feel it. A pain. In your tummy. And in your heart.” It is a reminder of just how dependent and inexperienced and naive young Jojo is. In the lands of a lesser performer, this little speech about the meaning of love would have felt a bit too on the nose, but Scarlett Johansson delivers it in a way that makes you forget that she’s not a German mother in the year 1945.

It’s one of the best scenes of the year, almost as good as the Scarlett Johansson shoe-tying scene in Noah Baumbach’s movie about divorce. Winner: Marriage Story

Best movie where Adam Driver plays a character who loses his temper and shares a fraught romantic relationship with a woman who accuses him of being a villain

I don’t think that Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker is a good film. The sequel trilogy is fraught, and watching episode VIII followed by IX felt like watching two different writer/directors wrestle over the direction they wanted the series to take, kicking sand in the face of the audience in the process.  In Episode IX, the plot is barely coherent, the pacing is bizarre, and so many of the creative choices are baffling. Yet, the sequel trilogy has one through-line that constantly works, and continues to work in Episode IX: the relationship between Kylo Ren and Rey. By episode IX, it feels like Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley are carrying the whole weight of this franchise on their shoulders, and their relationship is one of the few things that gets better and more interesting over the course of the trilogy.  Is it love?  Is it hate?  It’s difficult to articulate, and yet they share a connection, bound by some tether of fate or compatibility or chemistry that makes a romance between the two of them seem both impossible and inevitable. Yes, Kylo Ren is a villain, but he also may be the man that Rey loves.

Adam Driver brings a truly excellent performance in Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker.  It’s the kind of performance that makes you wish he could be in a better film, with better material to work with. Fortunately, he got exactly that in one of 2019′s most dramatic scenes, in Noah Baumbach’s divorce movie where Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) screams at Charlie (Adam Driver), “You gaslighted me! You’re a fucking villain!” Winner: Marriage Story

Best movie about the culture of Hollywood and Los Angeles

Tarantino loves making movies that are about movies. He pays homage to so many classic film genres, and every bit of his love for cinema comes across in his movies. Inglorious Basterds was a film about the power of cinema, with a powerful scene coming at the film’s climax that literally takes place in a theater, as film itself is used by a Jewish filmmaker as a weapon against Nazis.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is more deeply concerned with the filmmaking process and the people who participate in it, and I really think that Trudi Fraser (Julia Butters) steals the show with her portrayal of a child actress who, in her own way, reacquaints our protagonist Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) with his love for acting. And the parts involving Sharon Tate are purely about the love of cinema, a throwback to a more innocent time as we watch someone who loved making movies get to see firsthand the joy that her performance has brought to an audience of moviegoers.

Of course, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood isn’t just about Hollywood; it’s about the city of Los Angeles. There’s a scene when night falls and all of the signs across the city light up, and I’m left with the feeling that Tarantino really just enjoys giving us a retrospective tour of Los Angeles. It’s a joy to behold, and the movie constantly reminds you of where you are and why it’s special. It’s a lot like the scenes in another movie from the same year, where a man of New York (Adam Driver) gradually becomes acquainted with the city of Los Angeles, a place where people spend their days in their cars instead of on their feet and people constantly feel the need to remark about how much space there is. Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) discovers that beyond her talents as an actress, she takes quite naturally to the director’s chair, as Los Angeles offers her opportunities that she never could have had in New York City. Winner: Marriage Story

Best movie where the “villain” is portrayed as German, but actually the real villain is the system

1917 is a movie about the brutality of war. It is also a hauntingly beautiful film.

There is a particular shot in the movie, the first scene that takes place after nightfall, where we see flares lighting up the night as a church burns. We see shadows dance across the ground, and the score swells in just the right way, and the scene was just so nightmarish yet so striking that I couldn’t help but have a physical reaction to it. It feels like we’ve stepped into hell on earth, and yet...

So many shots in this movie are simultaneously terrifying yet magnificent in a way that doesn’t undercut the terror of war, but rather, underscores it: these characters inhabit a beautiful world that is tainted by the scars of battle.

There is a moment about halfway through the movie when the main character is confronted with the grim reality of human mortality, and from that moment forward, the specter of death looms over him. Every gunshot he hears -- and that we hear -- is a reminder of his mortality. Every step that he takes, he is surrounded by death, often in the most literal way possible as he finds himself in various settings surrounded by the remains of the fallen.

As we gaze upon fields and rivers and earth littered with death, we are left with the impression that God has given us a beautiful world, and the things that make it ugly -- the machine guns and barbed wire, the crashed planes and mortar craters, the sound of gunfire and the agonized screams of injured soldiers -- are a pox upon that natural beauty, a sort of corruption that could only be wrought by the hands of men.

War is an ugly, wretched, terrible thing, not only because of what it is, but also because of what it robs us of. 1917′s hauntingly beautiful moments give us fleeting glimpses of that.

1917′s plot is fairly minimal, but its basic construction facilitates the anti-war message: the climax of this movie is not about a soldier attempting to win a battle or kill enemy combatants, but to call off an attack in order to prevent soldiers from marching into the maw of death. German soldiers stand in the way of our protagonist’s progress, and he must defeat them in order to carry out his mission, but the Germans are not the real villains here: the true villain of this movie is war itself.

I had similar thoughts watching Laura Dern’s performance in Noah Baumbach’s movie about divorce: true, she is an opportunistic divorce lawyer. She exploits Nicole and Charlie’s pain for her own benefit, and in the end we’re left to think that despite all her claims to feel compassion for Nicole, she was really in it to win to satisfy her own ego. And yet, can we really begrudge her for what she’s doing? She’s a divorce lawyer, and she’s good at her job. It’s hard not to admire her for her sheer competence and work ethic. She is responding to the incentives that the court system has put in place. The messiness of divorce court is not the fault of any single individual; it’s a system that forces good people to do bad things, including the divorce lawyer played by actress Laura Dern, whose German ancestry makes this movie a valid candidate for this category. Winner: Marriage Story

Best movie about human parasites

Bong Joon-ho makes films in a genre that I sometimes have difficulty describing, but maybe if I do a poor job of articulating it you’ll still get the idea of what I’m gesturing at: he makes movies that are about ideas. (As opposed to, say, movies that are about things, or people, or events, or places.)  There were some movies -- good movies, even -- that, when you leave the theater, make you say, “well, that sure was a bunch of stuff that just happened.” I don’t think Bong has ever made a film like that: his movies stay with you.

Every movie is informed by the worldviews of the people who created it, but it feels like Bong creates movies that are intended to specifically communicate a certain worldview -- and yet it never feels preachy, because the stories that he tells seem so real and genuine. Maybe it’s the performances that he’s able to get out of the actors he works with, maybe it’s the way he always seems to let the camera linger just a second longer than other filmmakers would in order to really let a specific emotion hit you.

It feels reductive to describe Parasite as a film about class. It certainly doesn’t seem like we’re meant to agree with the characterization of these members of the “underclass” as mere parasites: they’re clever. They exhibit wit, ingenuity, and if they behave dishonestly and selfishly, it’s only because they’re part of a system that has forced them to be this way. It’s similar to the dynamic presented in Noah Baumbach’s divorce movie, where Baumbach portrays divorce lawyers as parasites who are nonetheless human in a story that feels incredibly true-to-life without being vindictive. Winner: Marriage Story

Best scene (that has also become an internet meme) where a character explains who is winning 

Uncut Gems had me glued to my seat in the theater, and it feels like an incredible cinematic achievement. I felt thoroughly sucked into the world of this movie -- a pretty unpleasant sensation, all things considered. Many shots give an incredible sense of claustrophobia. The camera work gives off a constant sense of frenetic energy that just makes you feel tense. The characters are all incredibly abrasive, and the actors all deliver world-class performances that completely sell that abrasiveness, all while talking over each other: no piece of dialog feels like it has room to breathe. Everything about this movie feels incredibly and unpleasantly crowded. It’s kind of amazing. It’s artfully done and incredibly immersive, but the world that it immerses you in is so unpleasant that I’m not surprised it got a relatively poor Cinemascore: this movie does not scratch the itch that typical moviegoers are used to having scratched, and in fact the main level it operates on is by making you itchy and refusing to scratch that itch. The ending of this movie is perfect, but it’s definitely not a crowd-pleaser that is going to leave you with a grin on your face as you leave the theater. I want to make it clear: these are all things that I love about this movie.

Adding to the visceral sense of unpleasantness is the fact that the film not only immerses you in a specific place (the diamond district of New York), but the perspective of a character who is pretty twisted, and lives an adrenaline-fueled life where every hour day is spent performing the incredible balancing act of borrowing money from one party to pay off his debts to another: it’s enough to give you second-hand anxiety as he weaves his way through a mess of loan sharks, trying not to lose his skin in the process. It’s like watching someone sprinting on a tightrope while juggling knives.

Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) is a deeply flawed man with practically zero admirable or redeeming qualities, and yet he’s rendered in such incredible fidelity that everything about him feels believable -- and being thoroughly immersed in his perspective makes him deeply fascinating. Throughout the movie, I felt myself wanting to understand this character and what made him tick, and the movie delivers that in its third act with a scene of the variety that I like to call “the scene in the movie where the main character explains what the movie’s themes are.” If that description sounds reductive and dismissive, it’s not because I mean it to be that way: I love this scene. Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) explains to Kevin Garnett (Kevin Garnett) what it is that makes him tick in a language that Garnett (and we, the audience) can understand: this anxiety-riddled thrill ride? This isn’t just the cost of doing business for him; he lives for this. “This is my fucking way. This is how I win.”

It’s a scene that’s almost as memorable as the line from Marriage Story where, in the midst of a fight between two people who are divorcing each other, Charlie (Adam Driver) punches the wall and screams, “you’re fucking insane! And you’re fucking winning!” It’s such a memorable moment that it’s no wonder that scene has become such an internet meme. Winner: Marriage Story

Best film of the year

It’s hard to overstate my love for Marriage Story. It’s one of those movies that just oozes competence from every pore, the kind of movie that makes me lean back in my chair and say, “This. This is how movies are supposed to be.” It’s so uniformly excellent that I hesitate to get specific with my praise, because while I can clearly put my finger on things that are great about it, the thing that I really love about it is all the things. I wouldn’t want to focus too hard on any one facet for fear of failing to recognize everything else about it that’s positively superb.

The set design is phenomenal. The film’s use of color is gorgeous. Noah Baumbach handles dialog in a way that makes you think “every movie should be like this.” Randy Newman’s score fits the film’s aesthetic to a T. And of course, the performances. Nearly every actor we see on screen delivers a performance that is Oscar-worthy: the array of character actors bat 1.000, and they’re not even the main event! Adam Driver gives the performance of a lifetime, and probably the only reason I’m not also saying the same thing about Scarlett Johansson is that she has to spend so much time sharing the screen with Laura Dern, who steals every scene that she’s in (based on Dern’s Best Supporting Actress award, it seems the Academy agrees).

Noah Baumbach gets great performances out of his actors, and he’s willing to frame the shot in a way that emphasizes the actor. There are so many shots that left me in awe of just how much confidence Baumbach has in his actors, his sheer willingness to just frame them in the middle of a shot and put the entire weight of a scene on their shoulders, only for them to deliver everything that’s expected of them and more. This film is beautiful from top to bottom, it has so much respect for its characters and it communicates all of that in a way that is just sublime.

Marriage Story is a movie about divorce. It has many incredibly emotional and contentious moments. If you have seen any part of this movie clipped or screenshotted on Twitter, it’s probably the scene of two characters shouting at each other, which really does feel like the performance of the year. I love everything about that scene. Two characters have reached a breaking point, and every bit of animus that has been stewing for the entire duration of their decade-long relationship comes to the surface all at once. It’s enough to make you terrified of what’s going to happen.

I like movies that make me uncomfortable. I like movies that are unsettling and sometimes almost anxiety-inducing, that have fully realized characters, even if those characters are abrasive. I love movies that are deeply immersive and pull me into their world, even if that world isn’t a place that is pleasant. For all of these reasons, if you’ve read this post this far, I think my pick for film of the year should be obvious. Winner: Uncut Gems

[rhythmbastard]

STATE OF THE BASTARD 2019!!!

Better late than never! I'm 31! Wooo... For me, 2018 was a year where I tried out a lot of stuff and it worked. As shitty as things were otherwise, and at times, I felt like I was just spinning my wheels, I have a better idea of what to do going forward. The con front was quiet, but the few shows I did put on (Mini Iwai, Anime Iwai and Holiday Matsuri), went over very well, particularly because I've got my shenaniganing down pat. I've also put out quite a few songs out on Patreon, and managed to get to a few conventions I wasn't required to play at. Like, I can just hang out and shit. So I have a better feeling going into 2019. Here's to 10 More Years! Yeah, I've been at this for 10 Years. MOST RECENT SONG: "Death's Blossom" Youtube-

Soundcloud-

I JUST rendered the video and cover out today so I can have this for you guys. You're Welcome! FAVORITE SONG I MADE: "Thrash Panda" A song that's still Patron exclusive, but I feel REALLY good playing this song live. The ONLY reason I haven't dropped it yet is because I do want to make a cool piece of art to go along with it. OTHER COOL SHIT I DID: 2017's 3000 Brigade Show is finally out!

This was a good one. I still have the Wii Fit Trainer stuff, in my closet. 2018's show was even better since I had more to do! Amanda if you're reading this I still have all of your acoutrements in my closet I've also joined a DnD Campaign long time internet friend Luke Herr is running, which leads me into... PODCAST STUFF: RPG Pals Club- By the time you read this, it'll be out for the public! My character is Oi! A Drow Monk who chose the punk life over the underdark. So now he's a punk monk. NOW HE'S A PUNK MON- I'd Rather Not- The last episode was... not fit for human consumption, but we're nearing on 100 episodes, so the shaningans will Pentuple! TREND I LIKED THE LEAST: Coddling Bigotry Being A Cottage Industry Oh, wait? That was last year? And it still persists this year since all social media companies worry about is "engagement", content be damned, since 4chan Nazis have nothing better to do all day than harass transgender people and other minorities? TREND I LIKED THE LEAST PART 2: Articles About "Going Too Far" You know the trend: "SANTA SHOULD BE GENDER NEUTRAL!" "THEYBIES?" "EXACTLY ONE WOMAN WITH FEMINIST IN THEIR TWITTER BIO SAID A THING SO IT'S NEWS" You've seen these articles a million times shared by friends on Facebook, usually accompanied by a "WTF?", and in the comments go something like "I'm not racist/sexist/hating on x group here, BUT..." These stories serve a purpose to make you think that a certain marginalized group is going "too far" in the pursuit of equal rights. And when you have the fear of going "too far", its two fold: 1. You're afraid of anything being tried in the first place 2. It leaves the door open for someone more agreeable to the status quo to come in with an ineffective solution. So the only response is to drag them to the main point kicking and screaming, "Well don't you think X should have the same rights as the rest of us?" TREND I LIKED THE MOST: Furries Being The Comrades We All Need In This Shittastic World This year's Internet Hero was not a man, but a fox. A black, gay fox (everything Republicans hate) who was really, really good at fighting games. Second place goes to a guy who shat on Elon Musk: I've mentioned that the furry fandom/subculture is more creator focused than anime fandom, which means that is is decentralized, and all media considered "furry" is not produced by a singular entity. There may be pieces of media popular amongst furries, like Disney movies, Star Fox, etc., but the fandom itself owns the means of production, meaning it's socialist as hell, which is a good thing.    Since there's no singular entity that produces the art, there's no reason for them to ignore bad actors in the name of profit. Video game and comics companies and the like can look at bullshit like Gamergate and Comicsgate and go, "Hey, their money's just as good as anyone else's! But since the talent pool is widely distributed, and everything is done on a person to person basis, you can tell the Nazis to fuck off:

And yes, there are Nazifurs/Altfurries. When the entire pull of a fandom is "You don't have to be the default you", it can be a good, like a safer space for LGBTQ+ people to express themselves and feel more out (i.e. their fursona is a different gender than the person was assigned, sexuality is different, etc.). Or it can be a bad, meaning "Hey, I was kicked out of my usual group because I was a dipshit who kept making holocaust/attack helicopter/racist jokes, SURELY these people will accept me!" As mentioned earlier, you can kick out the latter group. It's fine. When you've been an internet punching bag for so long, you can either be a shittier person, or keep on keeping on and learn to be better on your own. Same for the juggalos. LET'S COMBINE THE TWO, SHALL WE? FAVORITE SONG OF 2018: "Make Me Feel" by Janelle Monae

So, the runner up for this was "She's Kerosene" by The Interrupters, but while that a lot of energy and I crank up it my car all the time, "Make Me Feel" wins out because it has sexiest buildup to any song ever, and of course, Janelle Monae at her most fun. TOP 40 SONG I HATED THE LEAST: "Thank U, Next" by Ariana Grande

My thought process: "Ugh, OK, like, I haven't listened to a lot of Top 40 Radio, so I guess 'Feel It Still' is in the running, but let's see what Todd In The Shadows thinks..." "Thank U Next? That Ariana Grande song? It's a meme, but I'll give it a listen." "DAMN THIS IS SO GOOD! Her voice is so soothing! And the song expresses a sentiment so unique! Haha! I wonder what movies I'd parody for my thank u next equivalent?" THE "WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME ABOUT THIS SOONER?" AWARD: The Shadowrun Games by Harebrained Schemes Shadowrun is a TTRPG setting that's basically when two designers didn't want to decide on making a cyperpunk game, or a fantasy game so they're like "FUCK IT, WE'LL DO BOTH!" and have a game where you can play as orcs who can cast magic and elves who can hack into shit. Since 2013, Harebrained schemes have been making games based off the brand and have done so with X-Com style combat mixed with Neverwinter Nights style exploration, and while not very long, they've been fun to play and get into. Dragonfall is the best out of the three with a better story, and more connections to your usual shadowrunning squad. GAME OF THE YEAR: See Above ANNUAL REMINDER I SHARE A BIRTHDAY WITH MC BAT COMMANDER: via Blogger http://bit.ly/2Ht1MZJ

[scifimagpie]

The Free Speech Fallacy

In the wake of the sudden and catastrophic announcement of Tumblr's new policy, I found myself startled by the collapse of something long-assumed in discussions of free speech. "Female-presenting nipples," "sex acts," and "depictions of genitalia" between consenting adults or adult characters are among those being banned, but erotica is still okay to write. Ostensibly, the purpose of all this is to protect the internet from child pornography - but as usual, the cure is almost worse than the crime. Plenty of artistic photos are getting annihilated in the purge.

Obviously, child pornography is Bad, but banning all depictions of sexuality has sent Tumblr's stock plummeting and already devastated the community. But is it even working?

Predictably, since an automated ban system is being used, both hilarious and troubling results have been reported - on my dash, a building with three windows, a lumpy slime shape, and pictures of black men smiling were all flagged as containing "sensitive content." Obviously, this is ridiculous, but more nefarious and concerning is that posts about activism and LGBTQ+ issues were also immediately flagged.

As we speak, the exodus from Tumblr to Newgrounds, which does protect NSFW content, has already begun. So have the floods of sarcastic (but very funny) memes. The rest of the users are panicking or trying not to panic, and often staggering between the two emotions haphazardly.

I'll have more honest and cutting thoughts about this below, but for the time being, here's a visual pun about free speech.

Yes, I did create this silly, mediocre art just for the blog post. Learning to make art is hard.

Censorship - like, actually

Hate speech and sexy speech - and art - are often thrown together, as if they were one and the same or shared the same traits. Anyone who wants to support pornographic or artistic works for their own sake - such as myself - is often forced to accept their nastier cousins, hate speech and violent speech, as part and parcel of the ban list.

There's been some caterwauling about liability in lawsuits, revenge porn, and other such things, but the answer to that is not blanket banning. It's lazy, ineffective, and tars consensual and voluntary work with the same brush as harmful acts. If it's hard to understand why that's a problem, please watch this video about consent.

Lessons from the Exodus

However, this event shows that all forms of controversial speech are not, in fact, created equal. This has long been an argument, but - given that hate speech is surviving this purge easily enough and that nipples, of all the ridiculous things, are not - we can now officially divorce the two. The one is being attacked without any impact on the other. As much as they have often been companions in the penalty box, they are not the same issue, and we ought to be more honest about this, rather than letting Nazis take shelter behind our protection of sex workers and sexy content.

Hate speech, which I personally do not believe should be protected, is visual, verbal, and written expressions encouraging violence towards and harm of marginalised groups. The impact of hate speech and discrimination is directly dependent on how much harm they cause towards people. So for instance, a Muslim woman is subjected to far more prejudice than a white man on a regular basis, so she might be more in need of protection than the white guy. BUT - that does not mean that the white man doesn't need protection from individual acts of violence, such as a mugging or domestic assault (because men are abused, too, and our lack of men's shelters is criminal).

However, advocating for acts of hate using coded language, such as the ((( ))) technique used by alt-righters to distinguish Jewish people, or references to the Fourteen Words and that sort of thing, can be harder to pick up on. Do we silence those too?

On one hand, people should be allowed to exist freely. On the other hand, if those people decide their existence is predicated on harming others, the conflict that arises does not need to be defended. It does not materially benefit or even defend, for instance, the European cultures being talked about. If one demands that the existence of presence of others be punished merely at their whim, that person is wrong.

I can see someone saying, "BUT SJWs OR NPCs [Social Justice Warriors, or our new nickname, non-player characters] DON'T PERMIT THE EXISTENCE OF PEOPLE THEY DISAGREE WITH!"

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the position. What "we", broadly speaking, want, is to be tolerated and accepted as we are. We often have family members or friends who are or were centrists, right-wing, or even alt-right. It's their beliefs that are the problem. You might say, to put it in Christian terms, that we love the sinners and hate the sin.

But in all seriousness, "white pride" parades and groups have never done anything to actually preserve great works of art or literature. In fact, a lot of preservation work that's been done by various societies - such as by Muslims during the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire - was done in a spirit of tolerance and sharing. In addition to that, questioning something is not the same as destroying it. I've talked about this stuff before, and it's a huge topic, so let's get back to Tumblr specifically and the future of the arts and queer community on it.

Where do we go now?

Well, Mastodon seems to be an option. I've heard Newgrounds, as mentioned, is a possible haven.

At this point, I think it's time for businesses to be more honest about sexual content compared to other banned content. This purge is timed to match with December 17th, the day to end violence against sex workers. I have gone on record many times as being in support of sex workers, and have occasionally tried to talk about the difference between trafficking myths and trafficking facts, as well as other related issues. Sex workers and creators of sexual content (including writers, artists, cam girls, photographers, and etc) are all being harmed by this foolish and ill-judged, puritanical move - and nobody is being saved from actual hate speech, things that could, in fact harm adults.

Maybe we can talk Tumblr down from its terrible, foolish decision. Maybe not. But I'm making a profile elsewhere just in case, and I'll keep posting and sharing there - and on Tumblr - for as long as they let me. Queer people are not a mistake, nor filthy.

"Filth" is not necessarily even harmful.

We don't deserve to be erased.

***Michelle Browne is a sci fi/fantasy writer. She lives in Lethbridge, AB with her partners-in-crime and their cat. Her days revolve around freelance editing, knitting, jewelry, and nightmares, as well as social justice issues. She is currently working on the next books in her series, other people's manuscripts, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible.

Find her all over the internet:

*** Michelle Browne is a sci fi/fantasy writer. She lives in Lethbridge, AB with her partners-in-crime and their cat. Her days revolve around freelance editing, knitting, jewelry, and nightmares, as well as social justice issues. She is currently working on the next books in her series, other people's manuscripts, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible. Find her all over the internet: The mailing list * Amazon * Medium * Twitter * Instagram * Facebook * Tumblr * OG Blog

[catbountry]

Further Discussion of Nazi Punching Ethics

Izzy: There are many many times when it's OK to punch Nazis.

Izzy: When they've committed no crimes, have never met you before, and have their back turned to you isn't one of them.

Izzy: Shit like that is how you get Weimar Germany.

Cat Bountry: http://pastebin.com/LVrdM2fd

Izzy: "HORRAY, NAZI GOT PUNCHED IN THE FACE! BTW guys be safe there's some Nazis that are being really aggressive for some reason, be safe uwu."

Minty: I want your opinion but actually I don't care

Izzy: So far this person is claiming it's a good thing because it emboldens the worse parts of the left-wing? The very part that's been killing the left from within?

Cat Bountry: Yes.

Minty: The neo-left

Izzy: " at the point where people are openly violent, it does more good to be violent back and show defiance then stay silent like in ww2."

Izzy: There were two bad moves by the left in Weimar

Izzy: The regular left refused to acknowledge the Nazis existence, much less debate with them.

Izzy: The equivalent of the modern "no platforming".

Izzy: This let the Nazis both spread their ideas unchecked, and made them look like they were saying something important and revealing big secrets, otherwise why would the powers that be try to censor them?

Izzy: And then the radical left fought them with violence.

Cat Bountry: So basically they're creating THE EXACT SAME CONDITIONS that lead to Hitler's rise in the first place?

Izzy: You noticed?

Cat Bountry: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA FUCK.

Cat Bountry: I wish it'd been you debating this lady.

Izzy: We even have a Great Recession, and a recovery that's only helping the upper class.

Izzy: And even worse, we don't have Communism as a radical alternative, because it's failed so recently, while Nazism and fascism, for the most part, failed 80 years ago.

Izzy: (Not to imply Communism was good.)

Izzy: The Commies fought the Nazis and their brown shirts with violence.

Izzy: Both sides happily instigated the violence.

Izzy: And it served to reinforce both sides biases (dunno if that's the right word to use here) and led to more people moving from the middle to the extremes.

Cat Bountry: BUT IZZY, WHAT ARE YOU SAYING PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE DONE IN 1940'S GERMANY, IZZY? I REALLY WANT YOU TO ADMIT I'M RIGHT ABOUT PUNCHING NAZIS IN THE FACE UNPROVOKED BECAUSE "RHETORICAL VIOLENCE."(edited)

Izzy: By 1940 IT WAS TOO LATE

Minty: But what do you feel about this Nazis

Izzy: Germany was already full Nazi and their War Machine had started rolling into the rest of Europe.

Cat Bountry: Yeah I pointed that out.

Minty: What do you FEEL

Izzy: We're talking WeimarRepublic here.

Cat Bountry: Keep reading, I'm sure you'll love it.

Cat Bountry: I had to share.

MissMarie: It's pretty bad,

MissMarie: they keep trying to double back and want you to admit punching nazis is okay.

Minty: @Septapus wormhole send "HORRAY, NAZI GOT PUNCHED IN THE FACE! BTW guys be safe there's some Nazis that are being really aggressive for some reason, be safe uwu."

SeptapusBOT: Message sent! You can use any wormhole 2 minutes from now.

Minty: Time to get anon hate via wormhole

MissMarie: I want someone to make a callout post on tumblr about wormhole messages

Minty: I still can't believe people are still sending communist propaganda through the wormhole

Minty: What have I started

Izzy: There are some actual communists out there.

Or Maoists.

Minty: The communist uprising of discord

Minty: I WAS JUST MEMEING

Minty: ITS JUST A PRANK BRO

Izzy: Wow, having a Trump icon next to my words in your screencap is not good optics. You can't tell that it's a messed up, mocking image of Trump I'm using in the cap.

Izzy: Hell, I'm not sure how obvious it is to you guys, at least without clicking on it and seeing the bigger animated image.

Cat Bountry: It's not animated.

Cat Bountry: It's just distorted.

Cat Bountry: Why, did you really try to make your icon an animated .gif?

Izzy: Yes, it showed as animated when I uploaded it and when I view it in my account.

Izzy: It's not a big animation, it's just contributing to the distortion.

Izzy: Yes, it showed as animated when I uploaded it and when I view it in my account.

Izzy: It's not a big animation, it's just contributing to the distortion.

Cat Bountry: There is literally no animation when I view it.

MissMarie: nope

Izzy: Is it animated (shaking) when you view my profile, at least?

MissMarie: It looks like Trump has 4 eyes.

Izzy: "rhetorical violence"? What is this bullshit? I've been seeing a lot of this lately from the far-left,

Izzy: Mainly to justify using physical violence or violent censorship against people who verbally offend them.

Izzy: http://4chanpol.tumblr.com/post/130041431174(edited)

Cat Bountry: That was the point I realized I was talking to a wall.

Izzy: There's such a thing as "fighting words", but those go directly to personal insults, and still don't legally justify violence. (Though I'll have to check the law.)

Cat Bountry: They're not protected under free speech though, I don't think, if they're implying an immediate threat.

Izzy: I'll have an answer for that in a bit.

Izzy: Also, IIRC, the left gained a handful of seats in Congress this last election, but not nearly as much as they assumed they would.

Minty: @Septapus wormhole send Making the mother of all omelettes here, Jack- can't fret over every egg!

SeptapusBOT: Message sent! You can use any wormhole 3 minutes from now.

Cat Bountry: I STAND CORRECTED.

Izzy: Google it and check?

Cat Bountry: http://www.wsj.com/articles/republicans-are-confident-about-retaining-control-of-the-house-1478634160

Cat Bountry: You were right.

Izzy: "i think the right to freedom (general) and inherent human worth trumps the right to freedom (of speech)." That makes no sense? Freedom of Speech is one of the most basic freedoms.

Cat Bountry: I KNOW, RIGHT?

Izzy: "rights are social constructs" They're wrong again

Izzy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_and_legal_rights

Izzy: Only legal rights are social constructs.

Izzy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_and_positive_rights

Cat Bountry: I don't think these people actually know what "social construct" even means anymore.

Izzy: "is the right to be safe more important than the right to express unpopular oipiinions without fear of violent retaliations?"

Izzy: "fuck no? "

Izzy: Well, you got them to admit it.

Izzy: I hope they remember that their opinions are unpopular too, and they've just justified violence against them and theirs.

Cat Bountry: Did I really mispell "opinions" that badly?

Izzy: Yep. I don't blame you two for mispelling tho, tumblr chat ain't great for that.(edited)

Cat Bountry: It's pretty hilarious, though.

Izzy: yah

Izzy: anyway, I have to run out, be back in a bit

Cat Bountry: Later, gator.

[theliterateape]

“I Don’t Regret My Past but I Do Regret That There is Proof of It...”

By Don Hall

Here at The Ape, we’re relatively new to the issues of publishing content. Sure, David was an editor of a health rag and I’ve been publishing blog posts since before some of you were born (I believe my first piece was all about Hoovervilles and “a chicken in every pot”), but this is a different kind of animal.

We had a bit of a conundrum to solve when we committed to publish an anonymous piece in January of last year (Hey, Second City, Maybe Hire Some Actual Professional Comedians?)  and took some heat for it. We tried to be as fair as we could — that piece was pitched by an employee of Second City with a request of anonymity and was heavily edited from the moment it was sent to us and even following its publication.

Just recently, we encountered another dilemma:

The photo in question was one used by regular contributor Joe Janes in his weekly parody column, “The Minutes Of Our Last Meeting” and featured an open source photograph of a Neo-Nazi rally. In the forefront was a young woman, wearing a red t-shirt bearing a huge swastika, her hand in the Heil Hitler mode.

I responded:

“Whoa. How is it ruining your life? In order to remove the photo, we’ll just need proof you are actually in the photo. Thanks!”

Her response was to first call me and leave a voicemail.

Excerpted:

“Would it be ruining your life if someone were trying to use these photographs in the negative manner to take your child away because that is what my son’s father is trying to do. I don't regret my past but I can't have my past showing up when I am in a court battle over keeping my son.

I don't regret my past but I do regret that there is proof of it.”

Then another email:

“You supplied a phone number. I just called. "Ruining my life" is a mild over statement.. But if something posed a threat about taking your child away, wouldnt that ruin your life?

I was terrified. Angry. Scared when I sent that email below. As i still am. My ex is abusive. Mentally and was physically to my son while we We're together. He's stalking me and runnjng my name in the mid and found my photo on this page..

My names [redacted.] Where the photograph originally came from was a [redacted] paper showing my name as [redacted.] I only went to that rally for the person I was with at the time. I didn't go because I held the same beliefs. I went because surprise, it was a bad relationship and I didn't want to make them cross..

I don't regret my past.. I hate it is going to cause trouble in a custody case in keeping my son SAFE with me. My reputation is all i have. I have no criminal record. But being involved with Nazis would cause too many questions.

I'm a good 100pouds heavier. Having a child, 2 miscarriages and currently pregnant will do that to a woman.. I enclosed photos.

Please. Use a different woman. Please don't use that photo. I'm a mutt anyways. My mothee is 1/4 Cherokee. And my great great grandfather immigrated from Germany, so not only American Indian, I am of Jewish decent..

My fiancee is trying to send me the Facebook post of my ex sharing the page of the photo and what he's said. Its all a joke to him. He doesn't care about my son. He only wants to make me miserable. All he wants to do is hurt and control me. I'm out of his grasp, so he's trying anything to make me look bad.

My fiancee is a good man. A hard working blue collar man. This doesn't only effect me. It could blow back on his too, and our kids. And makes my reputation dirty.

Please.”

And then three more emails like it.

I went into the InterTubez and vetted the photo. Everything she said was on the up and up, so I found a different Neo-Nazi rally shot (sadly, there are far too many) and changed it out.

She expressed gratitude, there were screenshots of her ex online, and she used the phrase “not all heroes have capes.”

I’m not so sure I feel heroic but I feel ethical and I suppose that’s a decent way to feel. I can’t, however, get past the fact that, in my gut, I feel like this woman deserves to be terrified of her past. The initial photo was taken in 2015, leading up to the election of Our Reality Star President, at a Neo-Nazi rally.

“I don’t regret my past but I do regret that there is proof it.”

That statement says an awful lot about where we are in the ongoing evolution of modern society. I can hear Weinstein, Spacey and even Trump saying the same thing. I can imagine certain police officers saying it. Politicians saying it. Internet trolls saying it.

Christ, that statement could be the lasting meme that defines this particular era of social media, call out culture and unrelenting intolerance for disagreement on moralistic grounds.

I wonder about the kid in question and the horrifying circumstances, far beyond his control, that will shape who he becomes. Who will he be in 10 years — a Neo-Nazi? A misogynist? Even worse, a Republican? Will he learn to regret his youthful indiscretion or just the proof of its existence?

I used to believe that I could (and should) live without regret. As I grow older, that belief is shifting into a one that knows I will regret some things but will not endure shame for them as long as I have truly changed for the better.

To be completely forthcoming, when I received her initial takedown request and saw the photo, I didn’t want to help her. At all. In the same vein as the Nazi-punching memes of last year, the idea of being kind to a Neo-Nazi whose life was being ruined by a past she does not regret left me conflicted.

I wanted to fuck with her, to make her twist in her own pictorial legacy, to pay for the crime of being at a Neo-Nazi rally, wearing a huge swastika on her chest and saluting an ideology I find to be reprehensible in every way imaginable. Judgment is the national past time these days and using the internet as a means to vigilantism has become commonplace. We don’t even wait until accusations or context has been vetted by journalists anymore — the appearance of either acting like or simply not condemning the enemy is enough for a solid, full-throated trolling.

Once I told a friend that I believed all white people in the United States are racists because they all benefit from a racist paradigm. This friend later turned enemy and used this as my admission that I was racist. “He said he was a racist!” she wrote. “I have the receipts!” This quickly flashed through my mind as I read the Neo-Nazi mom’s plea that she only attended the rally to appease an abusive man.

“I believe her.” “Punch a Nazi.” “But I believe her.” “But she’s a fucking Nazi!”

So, yes. We took the photo down and replaced it with something else but I don’t feel good about it.

Why did we take it down? Because no one appointed us the punisher of those who do not regret their past but do regret that there is proof of it. No one made us the internet Batman, doling out our version of punishment to those who offend us or disagree with us. The low road is filled with vengeful, gleeful monsters, thrilled to destroy anyone they deem the Moral Enemy. The high road is harder emotionally and so there are fewer taking it.

The new activism is to react to hatred and ignorance and perhaps a lifetime of shitty patriarchal indoctrination with nothing less than complete destruction. That those afflicted by bullies and toxicity are using bullying and toxicity to fight back is the irony of our times.

I want this woman in the photo to regret her past and not only the proof of it. I want to see her have to bathe in the consequences of a sick and putrid worldview so willingly displayed.

It is not, however, my place to play executioner. Vengeance against someone I don’t know for things I find morally bankrupt is petty and self-righteous and I can’t allow myself to sink to that status. My personal feelings cannot be the guide to my conscience. More importantly, as The Ape continues to become something bigger and more culturally significant as a publication, it is our place to be ethical.

I still really hope the kid comes out a thinking, caring human being. I hope I never see a photo featuring him saluting hate like his mother.

[oldguardaudio]

The Patriot Post -> Antifa, coming to a Theater Near You

Hey Libertards spend you time doing what you talk about, Feed some homeless or something. at HoaxAndCahnge.com

Liberals are so kind and tolerant of others at HoaxAndChange.com

trophy for losing at HoaxAndChange.com

ALEXANDER’S COLUMN

The Antifa Movement — Coming to a Theater Near You

What is “Antifa,” and who is backing and benefiting from its actions?

By Mark Alexander · September 6, 2017   

“Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence.” —Joseph Story (1833)

Most Americans — those with jobs, families and community obligations and responsibilities — had likely not heard of “Antifa” before throngs of its masked thugs initiated the riots in Charlottesville last month — though the “group” played dominant roles in riots at Berkeley University in February and Evergreen State College in June.

What, then, is Antifa?

Correctly stated, it is a domestic derivative of “Antifaschistische Aktion,” the paramilitary wing of the1930s communist movement in Germany.

Reemerging in the U.S. in the 1990s under Bill Clinton, it has metastasized over the last eight years under Barack Obama’s regime into an autonomous collective of radical “useful idiots.”

The movement was invigorated by Obama’s Marxist agenda and that of his socialist bourgeoisiecadres. It coalesced around Obama’s revolution-tested politics of disparity, as instilled in him by his Marxist mentors. Antifa is the current manifestation of his repugnant Red October uprising, “Occupy Wall Street,” in the fall of 2011.

Recall that Obama proclaimed to his Occupy cadres, “You are the reason I ran for office.”

This growing radical anarchist/socialist movement, also referred to as the “alt-left,” declares that it is anti-fascist — but this is Orwellian. In truth, the movement bears a strong resemblance to Hitler’s brownshirt fascists, whom they claim to oppose. As American Enterprise Institute fellow Marc Thiessen aptly notes in a Washington Post op-ed: “Yes, Antifa is the moral equivalent of neo-Nazis. … Both practice violence and preach hate. They are morally indistinguishable. There is no difference between those who beat innocent people in the name of the ideology that gave us Hitler and Himmler and those who beat innocent people in the name of the ideology that gave us Stalin and Dzerzhinsky.”

Over the last eight years, the Occupy Wall Streeters and their kissin’ cousins, the so-called “Black Lives Matter” cabal, have had a hand in every urban-area riot across America. Like them, the Antifa thugs typically organize protests using social media accounts, websites and email blasts.

In 2016, the Antifa movement was further energized by the socialist platform of Bernie Sanders, until his presidential campaign was bushwhacked by the Democrat National Committee and Hillary Clinton.

Antifa is composed of mostly white adolescent agitators, violent malcontents between 18 and 30 years of age, from about 200 autonomous anarchist and anti-capitalist factions. Thus, it’s not an overtly formal organization — yet.

Who benefits from Antifa propaganda and violence?

The lack of organization doesn’t mean that no one is benefiting from Antifa’s propaganda and violence. Indeed, the Antifa movement has created a fundraising windfall for leftists, particularly the Democrat Party race-baiters and the hate-hustling profiteers at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

These two money-grubbing organizations have generated an endless stream of revenue beginning with their faux indignation at Donald Trump’s condemnation of both hate factions involved in the Charlottesville riots. The Democrat leadership and their Leftmedia propaganda machine devoted all their bandwidth to castigating Trump for daring to call out the thugs from both alt-right and alt-left.

Despite the Demo-goguery, historian Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, observed: “In the olden days, demonstrators decked out in black, with masks and clubs, would have been deemed sinister by liberals. Now, are they the necessary shock troops whose staged violence brings political dividends? Antifa’s dilemma is that its so-called good people wearing black masks can find almost no bad people in white masks to club, so they smash reporters, the disabled, and onlookers alike for sport — revealing that, at the base, they perversely enjoy violence for violence’s sake. As the cowardly Klan taught us in the 1920s and 1960s: Put on a mask with a hundred like others, and even the most craven wimp believes he’s now a psychopathic thug.”

National Review’s Jim Geraghty notes, “Antifa chants, ‘No Trump, no wall, no USA at all.’ The label ‘anti-American’ is not a pejorative, it’s just descriptive.”

And NR’s Rich Lowry calls out the hypocrisy: “Too many people were willing to perfume Antifa in the wake of Charlottesville. But Berkeley demonstrates once again the true nature of this left-wing movement, which is thuggish in its tactics and totalitarian in its sensibility. Anyone who at this point makes excuses for Antifa — or worse, justifies it — is participating in its moral rot. … There was certainly moral equivalence between Hitler and Stalin. Likewise, bully-boy fascists spoiling for a fight and black-clad leftists looking to beat them up exist on the same moral plane. They both thrill to violence and benefit from the attention that comes from it. They both reject civility and the Rule of Law that make a democratic society possible. They both are profoundly illiberal. … Liberal commentators spread memes comparing Antifa to American GIs who stormed the beaches at Normandy. The comparison would be apt if the 1st Infantry Division got together to spend an afternoon beating up fellow Americans rather than giving its last measure of devotion to breaching Hitler’s Atlantic Wall.”

Lowry was referring to, among others, this absurd social media post from The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, who equated our nation’s valorous D-Day forces with Antifa: “Watching ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ a movie about a group of very aggressive alt-left [antifa] protesters invading a beach without a permit.”

Shame on him. Far better men than Goldberg shed their blood on those Normandy beaches so that he could have the freedom to make such profoundly dullard remarks.

One of the nation’s most noted liberal protagonists, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, warned that Democrat leaders are making a grave mistake by embracing those who want to “tear down America” and by not condemning both sides of the riotous mobs in Charlottesville.

He implores his fellow Democrats: “Do not glorify the violent people who are now tearing down the statues. Many of these people, not all of them, many of these people are trying to tear down America. Antifa is a radical, anti-America, anti-free market, communist, socialist, hard-left sensorial organization. They use violence. … I’m a liberal, and I think it’s the obligation of liberals to speak out against the hard-left radicals, just like it’s the obligation of conservatives to speak out against the extremism of the hard right.”

After being uniformly condemned by conservatives and most moderates, even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi finally condemned Antifa, declaring, “Our democracy has no room for inciting violence or endangering the public, no matter the ideology of those who commit such acts. The violent actions of people calling themselves Antifa in Berkeley this weekend deserve unequivocal condemnation, and the perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted.”

Even that most entrenched of the Trump-hating Left media outlets, The Washington Post, is now playing catch-up. The paper recently ran a headline proclaiming, “Black-clad Antifa members attack peaceful right-wing demonstrators in Berkeley.”

How dangerous is this latest iteration of communo-fascist malcontents?

Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, the FBI issued alerts to DHS about the increasing risk of Antifa violence, noting that “anarchist extremists” were responsible for most of the political violence across the nation.

The Antifa tactics clearly fall within the federal guidelines defining domestic terrorism, most notably that the intent is “to intimidate or coerce a civilian population,” and “to influence a state or federal government policy by intimidation or coercion.” Despite this, it will be difficult to officially label Antifa a terrorist organization because, at present, it is not a formal organization but an amalgam of communist, fascist and anarchist political ideologies.

However, as previously noted, Antifa is not an overtly formal organization — yet.

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